Big Girl

She has become very aware of her tongue and sticks it out all of the time!

Emma is gaining weight like a champ! The pediatrician says she is one healthy little girl.

All dressed up for church! She hates texture on her clothes and it drives her crazy so the tulle on this dress just about drove her over the edge.;) But she did look darn cute!

Matt is one proud daddy! Emma loves hanging out with him and and is a ball of smiles when he is home.

Nearing the End

We wanted to get one last pic of just the two of us, but yet notice my enormous protrusion of Emma:).

Matt was wearing the last week of our countdown chain. When we got to the due date and she still wasn't making her debut Matt suggested we add some more to the chain to get to the induction date, which was already scheduled for 1 week past due. Absolutely not! Don't jinx it! Luckily, we went out to a work dinner and had Mexican food the night of her due date and I loaded up on salsa...just doing what I can to induce labor. Whatever it was, I woke up with contractions that next morning starting at 4am. Of course they were all over the place, but I felt like we were making progress!

Not a pretty sight! I was so ready to have her and more miserable with every passing day. I do not recommend driving around 900 miles to move just weeks before having a baby. We made LOTS of stops for me to get out and walk around and also check out almost every rest stop from Michigan to South Carolina. Some states take more pride in their rest stops than others:). All in all, my feet didn't turn into sausages until the 3rd day of driving but by then my belly was killing me and I just wanted to get to the end of the trip and settle in our new place.

My favorite part of being pregnant was feeling Emma move and get the hiccups at least 3 times a day...super fun, and uncomfortable at times- but very cool!

More Emma

Look at her cute blond hair! It is part blond part brown for now. She also has pretty blue eyes that are light in the very center and get darker on the outside...for now. (Who knows what they will be a year from now.) She very much looks like Matt now but looks like me as a baby. I had the chubby cheeks and round nose. These pics are still from her first couple of months.

Emma loves to sleep with her arms above her head and does it no matter what position she is in. Adorable! Her hair is deceivingly red looking in this picture-not true in "real life".

I love her in yellow! She has so many cute little outfits that she really needs a mid-day change to get them all in before we are out of hot days to get to wear the summer clothes.

This is the first time I could catch a smile on camera! That smile is priceless!

Being a mom is so much fun! I am very lucky to be able to stay at home with her and see every cute moment. Since we just moved here to SC and don't really know much about it, we have been learning our area and what is around us. More pics to come...

Emma

I am extremely behind in blogging, but I thought I would at least start with a few pics to show you our cute addition to the family. Emma was born two days late, on July 19 after 29 hours of labor! She decided to come at her own pace and when she was darn good and ready. She weighed 8lbs 3oz at birth and dropped to 7lbs 7oz by the time we left the hospital. She was a little string bean! These are some of the pics of her first couple of weeks on earth.

She has always been quite alert and wide eyed from the start.

I love the sleeping pics! She looks so darn peaceful.

She loves tubby time with the exception of her first real bath at home where she just screamed. In no time we had the bath thing down though and now it is her favorite part of the day.

Well, that will have to do for now because I am missing out on some much needed sleep to figure out my new format for blogging, but I will try to catch up this week little by little. :)

Updates

I am trying to get back on track and update on our life...be patient! Our computer died and we got a new one that I can't seem to figure out very easily so I will post more pictures when I can.

For a quick update...we are still moving the end of June to the Augusta area, which will most likely be North Augusta in South Carolina so we will live there and Matt will work in Georgia. Fun!

We are now just shy of the 3rd trimester and I feel like I don't have any more room to grow! This little girl is moving a ton and kicks at all of the wrong times of the day...just when I am trying to sleep. It is the best feeling in the world though and we are loving this experience. I have some mad heartburn and reflux and I am hoping that the wives tale about that meaning she will have hair is true. :)

Matt ran in the Tough Mudder yesterday and made it through with only minor scrapes...thank goodness. It was a crazy race and he actually said he would do it again. If you haven't heard of it, it is a 12 mile race with 27 different obstacles in the middle and basically kicks the trash out of you. A few of them even zap you with electricity! How is this fun? Anyways, as long as he enjoyed himself and realizes that I will never be a part of that madness!

I am in major packing mode before I get too big and uncomfortable as we get closer to our move, and I suppose that is good for this "nesting" stage of pregnancy since it gives me plenty to do. I am realizing that we probably have a couple of moves left before we end up in a final spot so I am starting to do more and more purging as time goes on.

Like I said, I will try to post more pictures soon but for now see the few that I was able to get below.

Trip to Arizona

Ben, Sarah, Parker, and Missy...such a cute family!


Ben, Amber, and Josh...good times.



Amber, Alyssa, and Mom



Dinner at a yummy Indian fry bread place.



Kris, Amber, Josh



Shopping and pedicures! So much fun!

It's A Girl!

All along Matt and I thought the baby was a boy...no rhyme or reason, just thought that is what we would have. Then when we went to the ultrasound this week and the tech finally got the baby in a position to show us the "goods" she told us we had a girl. We both were stunned, although that morning Matt told me he thought it might be a girl after all...I guess he is more tuned in than I am. :) We didn't care what we were having, but a healthy girl in the making makes us very happy! Now for the cute bows, dresses, bracelets, dolls, etc!